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Apologies, I misspoke. I was referring to leverage not delta (already edited the original post). I have built an Excel sheet which uses the IB API and shows me for the interesting part of the options chain a comparison of deltas between a portfolio full of common stock vs. a portfolio fully comprised of the respective option, and the leverage next to it. E.g.

View attachment 620820

In this example (I had to filter because outside market hours, I'm not getting data for all options via IB), a portfolio full of Jun '22 650 CALLs would give me a leverage of ~2.15 vs. common stock for a total delta of 11,633 if I had a portfolio 100% comprised of this instrument. (I would not choose this option because it's too ATM for my taste).

Another criteria I use to select my favorite options is the % premium over the current stock price (e.g., in the example above, a 650 CALL would cost ~$200. With stock price at $660 right now, that'd be a $190 premium, or ~29%... too expensive for my subjective taste). I aim for max. 10% premium.

After having paid a lot of tuition in short-dated OTM CALLs, I came to the conclusion that my goal with dabbling in options is not to get rich in a short period of time. Rather, it's important that I don't shoot myself out of the game by being too aggressive/greedy and blowing up my account (cf all the S&P inclusion plays on this board that went nowhere). Instead, my goal is let the gains compound with an exponent that is higher than the exponent on "just" holding the common stock.

Also, in order to make some money on the side, I'm selling DOTM short-term CALLs against my long LEAP CALLs as long as I deem it "safe" (e.g., the low-volume short trading weeks like now I like).

Thought I'd share my call selling in case you found it useful:
Use 100 leaps as an example that you're long.
Every Monday I sell 20 otm calls at a strike that is 30% higher than the current share price. The expiration will be 32 days out.
I also sell 20 otm calls at the highest avail strike. The expiration will be 32 days out.

The goal is to generate cashflow by selling theta, but minimize the risk of having to give up any core shares. So using this example of 100 leaps I want to have enough buying power utilizing margin to purchase enough shares in case any of these calls gets exercised. I divide 100 by 5 and get 20 (the number of calls I sell). I divide by 5 so that I have a max of 100 sold calls at any given time.

On the off chance the stock takes off I should be able to use margin to buy enough shares to satisfy the 100 exercised calls sold at strikes 30% above current share prices. I am a bit more aggressive by selling an additional 20 calls at the highest avail strike because I believe there's a less than 1% chance they are exercised.

I prefer to sell 20 at a time weekly rather than 100 monthly (or any other time frame) to take advantage of any changes in theta. (Ie. Selling at IV of 66% one week only to miss out if IV increases to 90% over the next two weeks).

Additionally since I have shares and leaps I figure the total long calls or equivalent that I have and divide by five to come to a number of options to sell. 1000 shares and 90 leaps would be equivalent to 100 leaps in regards to this strategy.
 
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Note that you can also sell covered calls against held calls.

Like most people here I have both stocks and options in my trading account. Can you clarify how you specify that you are selling covered calls against call options and not against stock?

For eg: I have a few call options expiring in Jan 2022 and I would like to sell some covered calls against these call options that are ITM. What are tax implications?
 
We’ve now had almost 2 months of FSD beta releases. I’ve watched most of the publicly-available videos.

Based on progress over those 2 months and an intervention rate of once every 1-3 miles-ish in small cities with light traffic, I’m going to update my estimate that we’ll have mostly intervention-free FSD driving in 1-2 years. In other words, Tesla should be close to where Waymo is now performance-wise in 1-2 years. At that point we’ll probably be working on the hundredths place (99.99<~ this 9) in reliability.

The difference being of course that Tesla won’t be geofenced.

I started a rather heated thread here at TMC back in 2016 when AP2 hardware was announced. Many thought FSD was imminent at the time (within a year or two), and I said in a best case scenario it would take 5 years—something for which I received quite a few disagrees at the time but which turned out to be approximately correct.

October 2021 will mark the 5 year point. My updated guess is still in line with that—somewhere around end of 2021 to the end of 2022 is when we’ll see mostly intervention-free driving.

Time will tell how optimistic or pessimistic I was, but even on the longer end of the spectrum that means we could all be filthy rich (err, I mean filthier richier) about a year or two from now, when the market recognizes FSD in the stock price. (When we truly start working on the trailing 9s).

I estimate Robotaxi will probably arrive in the 2023-2024 timeframe.
 
Like most people here I have both stocks and options in my trading account. Can you clarify how you specify that you are selling covered calls against call options and not against stock?
You don't have to unless they get exercised. Then you have to exercise your bought options, and tell the broker which ones to use. Exectly how to do that depends on the broker.

For eg: I have a few call options expiring in Jan 2022 and I would like to sell some covered calls against these call options that are ITM. What are tax implications?
Selling the covered calls might prevent the LEAPS from becoming long term capital gains. If the ones you are selling are out of the money, you should be OK though. You owe tax on the calls you wrote when they expire or are exercised.
 
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After-action Report: Thu, Dec 24, 2020: (Half Day's Trading)

Headline: "TSLA Stocking Stuffer for Christmas Eve"

Traded: $15,046,585,417.53 ($15.05B)
Volume: 22,846,200
VWAP: $658.60

Close: $661.77 / VWAP: 100.49%
TSLA closed ABOVE today's Avg SP
TSLA MaxPain (7:00 A.M.): $620 (N/C from Wed)

TSLA S&P 500 Weight: 1.574919%
Mkt Cap: TSLA / TM $627.292B / $207.551B = 302.24%
Note: Yahoo Finance yet to update TSLA Mkt Cap re shares issued Dec 11th (SEC Filing)
CEO Comp. Status: (est'd Mkt Cap including Dec 11th shares)

TSLA 30-day Closing Avg Market Cap: $591.56B
TSLA 6-mth Closing Avg Market Cap: $394.56B

Mkt Cap req'd for 7th tranche ($400B) tracking Wed, Jan 13, 2021
Nota Bene: h/t @The Accountant "CEO Compensation Award Update"
'Short' Report:

FINRA Volume / Total NASDAQ Vol = 54.0% (54th Percentile rank FINRA Reporting)
FINRA Short / Total Volume = 58.2% (55th Percentile rank Shorting)
FINRA Short Exempt ratio was 0.37% of Short Volume (45th Percentile Rank Exempt)​

TSLA - SUMMARY TABLE - 2020-12-24.png


Comment: "TSLA performs like a proper Big Cap" :D

QOTD*: @Elon Musk "Engineering is a gift"

View all Lodger's After-Action Reports

*Decade
 
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Time will tell how optimistic or pessimistic I was, but even on the longer end of the spectrum that means we could all be filthy rich (err, I mean filthier richier) about a year or two from now, when the market recognizes FSD in the stock price. (When we truly start working on the trailing 9s).
I'm still working on filthy rich.
 
>> "Note that you can also sell covered calls against held calls."

Really ? I had never heard of this before. Any resources on this you can point me to ?
Quote from Waterhouse:
============================================
Sell to Open Covered

A short position in an equity, bond or index option can also be covered by a long option in the same underlying asset, trading in the same currency, with the same or later expiry date.
-----------------------------------------------
So the correct statement is : you can also sell covered calls against held calls, provided the held calls have the same or a later expiry date.

Ref: WebBroker - Help
 
We’ve now had almost 2 months of FSD beta releases. I’ve watched most of the publicly-available videos.

Based on progress over those 2 months and an intervention rate of once every 1-3 miles-ish in small cities with light traffic, I’m going to update my estimate that we’ll have mostly intervention-free FSD driving in 1-2 years. In other words, Tesla should be close to where Waymo is now performance-wise in 1-2 years. At that point we’ll probably be working on the hundredths place (99.99<~ this 9) in reliability.

The difference being of course that Tesla won’t be geofenced.

I started a rather heated thread here at TMC back in 2016 when AP2 hardware was announced. Many thought FSD was imminent at the time (within a year or two), and I said in a best case scenario it would take 5 years—something for which I received quite a few disagrees at the time but which turned out to be approximately correct.

October 2021 will mark the 5 year point. My updated guess is still in line with that—somewhere around end of 2021 to the end of 2022 is when we’ll see mostly intervention-free driving.

Time will tell how optimistic or pessimistic I was, but even on the longer end of the spectrum that means we could all be filthy rich (err, I mean filthier richier) about a year or two from now, when the market recognizes FSD in the stock price. (When we truly start working on the trailing 9s).

I estimate Robotaxi will probably arrive in the 2023-2024 timeframe.
I agree. With that in mind, I recently sold calls one year out and bought an equal dollar value of calls two years out.
 
Interesting article. Closing observation:


"As I wrote in my review, the Mustang Mach-E is one impressive EV, one that stands tall against the Tesla Model Yin most competitive measures. But Tesla’s foresight and investment in its own proprietary network remains a key competitive advantage, right up there with its edge in electric efficiency and range.

While I was standing in the rain at Target, twiddling my thumbs, I had ample time to mull that over — and realize that Ford and the rest still have some catching up to do."
So THAT WAS YOU ringing the Salvation Army Bell!
 
  • Funny
Reactions: Duffer and LTC_RRR
We’ve now had almost 2 months of FSD beta releases. I’ve watched most of the publicly-available videos.

Based on progress over those 2 months and an intervention rate of once every 1-3 miles-ish in small cities with light traffic, I’m going to update my estimate that we’ll have mostly intervention-free FSD driving in 1-2 years. In other words, Tesla should be close to where Waymo is now performance-wise in 1-2 years. At that point we’ll probably be working on the hundredths place (99.99<~ this 9) in reliability.

The difference being of course that Tesla won’t be geofenced.

I started a rather heated thread here at TMC back in 2016 when AP2 hardware was announced. Many thought FSD was imminent at the time (within a year or two), and I said in a best case scenario it would take 5 years—something for which I received quite a few disagrees at the time but which turned out to be approximately correct.

October 2021 will mark the 5 year point. My updated guess is still in line with that—somewhere around end of 2021 to the end of 2022 is when we’ll see mostly intervention-free driving.

Time will tell how optimistic or pessimistic I was, but even on the longer end of the spectrum that means we could all be filthy rich (err, I mean filthier richier) about a year or two from now, when the market recognizes FSD in the stock price. (When we truly start working on the trailing 9s).

I estimate Robotaxi will probably arrive in the 2023-2024 timeframe.

Totally agree. After watching some of those FSDbeta videos, have to say there are some really smart, dedicated, patient people out there testing out the capabilities.